Caricatures and cartoons book series in reading order

by Stephan Pastis

by Robert Crumb

by Alison Bechdel

by Tom Tomorrow

by Robert Crumb

by Charles M. Schulz

by Charles M. Schulz

by Charles M. Schulz

by Charles M. Schulz

by Charles M. Schulz

by Charles M. Schulz

by Dana Simpson

Charles M. Schulz was an American cartoonist, born in Minneapolis in 1922 and working until his death in 2000. Schulz created the comic strip Peanuts, whose cast includes Charlie Brown and Snoopy, after developing an earlier strip called Li'l Folks from 1947. United Features Syndicate renamed the redeveloped strip Peanuts and began publishing it in October 1950. The book catalogue holds 781 titles, from More Peanuts in 1954 to Snoopy, the Story of My Life in 2025, gathered into collections such as The Complete Peanuts and Peanuts Every Sunday.

Robert Crumb

56 books• 3 series

Robert Crumb, who signs his work R. Crumb, is an American comic book artist born in 1943. Crumb helped found Zap Comix, the first successful underground comix publication, and drew for all 16 issues. His work carries a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and satirises contemporary American life. This listing holds 56 titles dated 1963 to 2014, from The Yum Yum Book (1963) to The Complete Zap Comix Boxed Set (2014), taking in the Complete Crumb Comics and R. Crumb Sketchbook series.

Bill Watterson, born July 5, 1958, is the American cartoonist behind the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Watterson's syndicated career ran from 1985 to 1995 and closed at the end of 1995 with a brief statement to newspaper editors and readers: the comic strip medium held nothing further for Watterson to achieve. Early work included drawings for Target: The Political Cartoon Quarterly, and Watterson is known for firm views on licensing and syndication and for a reclusive nature. The catalogue lists 21 books from Calvin and Hobbes (1987) to The Mysteries (2023), including Yukon Ho! (1989).

Goscinny wrote comics. Asterix and Lucky Luke are the two recurring creations, joined by Iznogoud, Dogmatix and the Nicholas books. Asterix the Gaul (1959) is the earliest entry, with Asterix and the Golden Sickle (1960), Asterix and the Goths (1961), Asterix the Gladiator (1962) and Asterix and Cleopatra (1963) following in quick order. The catalogue holds 107 titles dated 1959 to 2011, averaging 48 pages. Gauls, cowboys and caricature run through the subject list.

Stephan Pastis is an American cartoonist and former lawyer, and the creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine. Strip collections fill much of a 37-title catalogue - Nighthogs (2005), When Pigs Fly (2010), Rat's Wars (2013), Pearls Blows Up (2014) - and Pastis also writes for children, starting with Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2013) and continuing into Trubble Town. The seventh Timmy Failure book, It's the End When I Say It's the End, entered the New York Times children's middle grade list at number 4.

Alison Bechdel works in comics: the catalogue subjects list comic books and strips, graphic novels, caricatures and cartoons, pictorial American wit and humor, lesbians, lesbianism and LGBTQ humor, together with Lambda Literary Awards. Dykes to Watch Out For, Fun Home, Interviews with Icons, Alison Bechdel Humor & Entertainment and Secret to Superhuman Strength are the five series credited to Bechdel. The 25 books run from Dykes to Watch Out For (1986) to Spent (2025), taking in More Dykes to Watch Out For (1988) and The Indelible Alison Bechdel (1998). The 1990s hold the most titles, and Bechdel is still publishing.

Tom Tomorrow is the pen name of Dan Perkins, an American editorial cartoonist born on April 5, 1961. This Modern World, the weekly comic strip by Tom Tomorrow, comments on current events; as of 2015 it ran in more than 80 newspapers in the United States and Canada. Perkins was formerly the comics curator at the Daily Kos. Cartoons by Tom Tomorrow have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Mother Jones and The Economist. The catalogue holds 13 books from Greetings From This Modern World (1992) to Life in the Stupidverse (2020).

Cartoons and pictorial American humour define the Roz Chast catalogue, which holds 16 books published between 1984 and 2023. The run opens with Parallel Universes (1984) and closes at I Must Be Dreaming (2023), taking in Unscientific Americans (1986), Proof of Life on Earth (1991), The Party, After You Left (2004) and Theories of Everything (2006). Subject headings also cover graphic novels, children's fiction, stories in rhyme and bedtime. The Marco series sits under the Chast credit.

Cartoonist John Michael Callahan has 11 books in the catalogue, from Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot: The Autobiography of a Dangerous Man (1989) to Levels of Insanity: Cartoons by Callahan (2004). Callahan was an American cartoonist, artist and musician, born 5 February 1951, who died on 24 July 2010. Quadriplegia shaped both the rough drawing style and the often dark content. Do Not Disturb Any Further (1990), Digesting the Child Within (1991) and Freaks of Nature (1995) are among the titles. Subject headings include pictorial humor, quadriplegia and alcoholism.

Daniel Clowes

22 books

Daniel Clowes, born in 1961, is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator and screenwriter. Eightball, a solo anthology comic, first carried most of Clowes's work, including chapters later collected as graphic novels. Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (1993) and Ghost World came out of that process, as did David Boring and Patience. Clowes has drawn illustrations for The New Yorker, Newsweek, Vogue and The Village Voice. The 22 catalogued Clowes books run to Monica (2023).

Sports cartoon collections appear in the catalogue listed for Steve Moore, alongside the Bleachers and King of the Bench series. Born in the Bleachers: Sports Cartoons (1989) is the first title, and Back to the Bleachers: Baseball Cartoons (1996) and Dibs on His Clubs!: An In The Bleachers Golf Collection (2004) came later. Titles from 2017 and 2018 include Control Freak (2017), No Fear! (2017) and Comeback Kid (2018). Subjects include children's fiction, golf, baseball, phobias and middle school boys.

R.L. Stine

589 books• 64 series

Robert Lawrence Stine, born October 8, 1943, is an American novelist who writes horror fiction for children. Goosebumps, the series Stine created, sold more than 400 million copies in 35 languages and grew into a franchise of two television series, video games, comics and two feature films. Fear Street, Stine's horror sequence for teenagers, passed 80 million copies and was adapted for film. Stine has been called the Stephen King of children's literature. The listing runs to 590 titles, from How to Be Funny (1978), published as Jovial Bob Stine, to How to Train Your Dummy, scheduled for 2027.

Shel Silverstein

25 books• 3 series

Shel Silverstein wrote children's poetry, nonsense verse and pictorial humour, and worked as a cartoonist, songwriter and musician. Silverstein lived from 1930 to 1999 and was raised in Chicago. His 25 catalogued books span 1955 to 2017, from Take Ten to Runny Babbit Returns, and run short at a median of 95 pages, with the 1960s his densest decade. Silverstein's drawings appeared in newspapers and magazines including Playboy during the 1950s, and Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book (1961) was his satire for adults. The Giving Tree (1964), Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic are among his most acclaimed titles, and the Missing Piece books form one of his two series.

Crockett Johnson was the pen name of David Johnson Leisk (1906-1975), an American cartoonist and illustrator of children's books. Johnson drew the comic strip Barnaby from 1942 to 1952, collected in volumes beginning with Barnaby, Vol. 1: 1942-1943. Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955) launched the Harold books, followed by Harold's Fairy Tale and Harold's Trip to the Sky. In the last decade of Johnson's life, from 1965, came over 100 paintings on mathematics and mathematical physics, 80 of them held by the National Museum of American History.

James Thurber

56 books• 3 series

James Thurber was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright who lived from 1894 to 1961. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Thurber studied at Ohio State University, worked in Paris as a code clerk for the US State Department, reported for the Columbus Dispatch, and joined The New Yorker in 1927. Is Sex Necessary?, written with E. B. White, parodies serious psychological books about sex. 56 catalogued books run from 1921 to a 2019 Collected Fables, with the 1950s the busiest decade. The median title runs 212 pages.

Chris Riddell

48 books• 6 series

Chris Riddell, born 13 April 1962 in South Africa, is an English illustrator, an occasional writer of children's books and a political cartoonist for the Observer. Riddell has won three Kate Greenaway Medals, and books written or illustrated by Riddell have taken three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes. Riddell became UK Children's Laureate on 9 June 2015. The catalogue lists 48 books from Ben and the Bear (1986) to Poems to Save the World With (2020), with series such as Goth Girl, Ottoline, Platypus, Alienography and Cloud Horse Chronicles. Subjects include picture books, bears, humorous stories and friendship.

Max Beerbohm

44 books

Max Beerbohm, born Henry Maximilian Beerbohm on 24 August 1872, was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist who signed his drawings Max. Beerbohm reviewed drama for the Saturday Review from 1898 to 1910, then moved to Rapallo in Italy, and died on 20 May 1956. Zuleika Dobson (1911) is the one novel. The 44 catalogued titles open with A Defence of Cosmetics (1896) and take in Caricatures of Twenty-Five Gentlemen (1896), A Christmas Garland (1912) and Fifty Caricatures (1913), with The Works of Max Beerbohm collected in 2018. Humour, theatre criticism and cartooning define the subject list.

Dana Simpson created Phoebe and Her Unicorn and drew the internet comic strip Ozy and Millie from 1998 to 2008. Simpson grew up in Gig Harbor, Washington, and graduated from The Evergreen State College. Winning the Amazon-sponsored Comic Strip Superstar Contest in 2009 led to a Universal Uclick development deal for Heavenly Nostrils, the strip later renamed Phoebe and Her Unicorn. The catalogue lists 31 books from Phoebe and Her Unicorn (2014) to Unicorn Book Club (2025). Subjects include unicorns, magic, girls, friendship and comic strips.

Provence made Peter Mayle's name, in travel writing about French village life, food and neighbours. The earlier work is very different: illustrated guides for children and parents, starting with 'What's Happening to Me?' (1975) and 'Where Did I Come From?' (1977), plus the Wicked Willie cartoons. Sam Levitt heads a later crime series. Fifty-four titles make up the catalogue, which closes with My Twenty-Five Years in Provence in 2018.

Sandra Boynton

103 books• 1 series

Children's board books in rhyme are the core of Sandra Boynton's work. The American humorist, songwriter and illustrator has 103 catalogued books published between 1979 and 2026, from Hester in the Wild (1979) to Iguana Miss You! (2026). The list takes in But Not the Hippopotamus (1982), Moo, Baa, La La La! (1982) and The Going to Bed Book (1982). Animals, bedtime and humour recur throughout, and Little Pookie is her named series. Boynton is actively publishing.

Jory John is an American author of children's books, known for dark humour and for taking on difficult topics. Jory John titles have reached the New York Times bestseller list, with The Good Egg at number one and The Bad Seed at number two, and John has twice received an E.B. White Read-Aloud Honor. The catalogue lists 40 books from Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country (2009) to This Is Not a Christmas Book (2026). Series include Food Group, Bear & Duck and Animal Problems, and bears, ducks, friendship and kindness appear among the subjects.

Lincoln Peirce

77 books• 6 series

Lincoln Peirce created the Big Nate comic strip and writes and illustrates the Big Nate novels for young readers. Born in 1963, Peirce is an American cartoonist and animator who has written animated shorts for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and created the animated Big Nate series that premiered on Paramount+. Eighty-two titles are catalogued from 2001 to Code Red! (2026), covering the graphic novels, activity books and the Max and the Midknights series. Middle school, friendship and humour are the recurring subjects.

Jennifer L. Holm

66 books• 13 series

Jennifer L. Holm, born in 1968, writes for children in both prose and comics, and holds three Newbery Honors and an Eisner Award. Babymouse, an imaginative mouse at school, recurs across the Babymouse and BIG Adventures of Babymouse books, with Squish, Sunny, My First Comics and Evil Princess vs. the Brave Knight as the other graphic series. May Amelia, Boston Jane, Turtle in Paradise and The Fourteenth Goldfish sit alongside them in prose. Holm's 66 catalogued books run from Our Only May Amelia (1999) to Sunny Figures It Out (2025), at a median of 126 pages.

Michael Bond, an English author born on 13 January 1926 who died on 27 June 2017, is best known for children's books about Paddington Bear. Sales of the Paddington books passed 35 million worldwide, and the characters moved into animated television, a film series and a stage musical. The catalogue records 217 books under the name, including A Bear Called Paddington, More About Paddington (1959) and Paddington Helps Out (1960). Olga Da Polga, Monsieur Pamplemousse, Parsley and Mouse Called Thursday are further series, and guinea pigs and private investigators appear among the subjects.